The Barnet Times ruined my holiday

I'm a Manchester City FC fan. I wanted to be in the one place in the world where I could be sure everyone felt like I did about the Champions League final. We've been in Barcelona since Monday (more on that later). We had a great time or at least we did until Thursday. Around lunchtime, my phone started going non stop, texts started appearing. A friend said "have you seen the front page of the local paper?". No, of course I hadn't. I'd been up drinking champaign till 3 am, watching cars hurtle past the hotel, horns blazing.

Seems that I was on the front of the local paper. Sooner or later I will discuss what it all refers to, but just between you and me dear reader, I'm livid. Tom Johnson, the reporter, is on holiday today, but I will be speaking to him next week. I know I'm probably not flavour of the month at the Times, for calling them the Barnet Tory Bugle, whilst referring to their coverage of the Sheltered Wardens campaign (until 2 weeks ago, when it became much better), but surely they have heard of the basic concept of good manners.

You see, I hadn't got a clue that my name would be plastered all over their little paper. They printed a whole front page, casting me as a central character, without even having the decency to give me a bell, check the accuracy, ask if the detail were correct, or even ask my opinion of the story. I used to write a blog for them, so it's not as if they didn't know the number - Tom has called me on occasion before, for background to stories. They specifically state that they spoke to the two other main protagonists in the story, who declined to comment. I wouldn't have had anything to say, but a heads up that the phone would have been ringing would have been nice. As it was, I had to leg it back to the beach, find an internet cafe, look at their website, take loads of calls, answer loads of texts, all of which cost me a small fortune.

I've no idea whether you can make a PCC complaint when a paper sticks you on the front page without telling you, having not even bothered to call you to check the facts with you. I've been warming to the Times of late, but I regard their behaviour in this matter as harrassment.

If the editor Charlie Strong or Tom Johnson, who wrote the report care to ring to explain why my views on a story about me were irrelevent, then assuming there is a good reason, I'll put it down to journalistic zeal. Charlie, Tom - the ball is in your court.